SANTA ANA, Calif.—House Speaker Kevin McCarthy threatened to use the congressional spending bill to block funding of a visa waiver program for Chile that has been blamed for a sharp rise in organized crime including home burglaries and robberies in the United States.
The rise in residential and business crimes is linked to a Chilean crime syndicate, McCarthy told reporters at the press conference in Santa Ana, California, following a roundtable discussion with Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, law enforcement officials, and California-based Republicans in Congress.
Chile won’t let the United States do criminal background checks on Chilean nationals entering the United States on visa waivers even though thousands of Chilean nationals have been arrested for organized crime in America, McCarthy said….